When mum is just a baby herself

But hang on a minute though, the mum is still a kitten herself at only eight months old and has spent her pregnancy as a stray in a garden, where a kind family have been feeding and providing shelter.

When she arrived in our care, we knew we were days away from kittens being born.

So as beautiful as mummy cat and kittens are, the work behind the scenes to help these poor abandoned cats and kittens is putting an enormous strain on our branch as we struggle to keep up with the annual kitten season.

Mia’s kittens were born on the 14 th June and will remain in our care for a minimum of 63 days before they can be rehomed.

Mia will stay for a further 21 days as she will need to be spayed and recover before she can be rehomed.

It doesn’t take many cats like Mia and litters of kittens to fill all our spaces, which has a highly detrimental effect on the waiting time to help any stray adult.

So why don’t people neuter and spay their cats?

Cost is possibly the main reason followed by ignorance in most cases. People tend not to believe that cats are sexually active at four months old or that siblings wont mate with each other, they do!

Ninety per cent of cats coming into our branch that are either pregnant or with kittens are just 9-12 months old.

In Mia’s case, whilst she is doing an amazing job as a mum, she also wants to play with them and is very confused.

How can anyone think that is fair? Being a responsible cat owner means you look at the costs involved for their long-term health and care, and neutering is essential.

Un-neutered cats will wander looking to mate and are more likely to be involved in road accidents, male cats can become more territorial when not neutered and this leads to fighting (potential risk of FIV disease) and spraying - leaving behind a pungent smell that you can’t get rid of.

Cats Protection offers assisted financial neutering help for those on qualifying benefits and will be launching a short-term neuter offer, in the coming weeks, which is designed to help anyone with a cat that needs neutering over the age of four months.

We must STOP letting kittens have kittens!

Please call us on 0345 371 2750 to find out more.

Our next homing event is Sunday, July 2, at The Loxley Centre, (next to the Crab &Winkle pub), Werrington, PE4 5BW from 2-3.30pm.